Author Archive: JenBetweenDots

Before reading this article, know that I understand that I am coming from a very privileged position. I am extremely lucky to have been able to save money to travel and to be able to travel continuously for over 18 months. However, I do get questions asking how I was able to do it, thus this blogpost:

First some background: I moved out of my parent’s house when I was 18 years old. I lived mostly alone for all the years before I traveled (there were a few brief stints back at my parents – like when the pipes burst in my apartment and I was home for 4 months while it was being repaired) but mainly I lived alone and paid my own rent, and paid my own bills. I also started an RRSP (this is like a 401k) when I was 19 and was lucky enough to have my place of work contribute a bit to it as well.

In 2008 I lost my job in oil & gas because of the economy so I went back to serving (in Calgary at the time minimum wage was $8 an hour, plus tips). I also decided I wanted to do something else, and travel so I saved some money ($2,500) and took the CELTA course. My lease was up at the beginning of 2010 so I moved back in with my mom for the 6 months before I left. This is not an option for everyone and I GET that but I was lucky enough to be able to do that. Had I not been able to do that, I would have moved in with a friend who had a room for rent relatively cheaply ($300/month).

I worked my ass off in those 6 months. I picked up any extra shifts I could at my waitressing job, I saved all my tips and put them in a jar guarded by my financially savvy younger sister. I didn’t go out very often and I saved close to $9,000 (that’s $1,500 a month. If I had lived with my friend that number would have been around $7,200 – still not too bad for 6 months). That works out to about an $18,000 a year salary (granted, with no expenses).

Hierve el Agua – Oaxaca, Mexica

I drove with my dad down to Vegas and stayed there for a month researching Central America and planning. I booked my ticket to Mexico City for about $300 one way. I booked a tour on a last minute deal for 3 weeks for about $1,100 (that left me with $7,600). In Mexico City I made friends with a group of people who were amazingly nice and ended up ‘couch-surfing’ in one of their spare bedrooms for about a week.

After the 3 week tour, I stayed in hostels and ate cheaply – one week I bought a loaf of bread, peanut butter and jam and made myself sandwiches to eat all week. I ate street food that was delicious, and I shared rooms with up to 8 people in hostels. This is not for everyone but it worked for me! I wasn’t 18 or a ‘dirty hippy’ either; I was 26 years old and a professional looking for a job.

About to sandboard down an active volcano in Nicaragua

After 4 or 5 months of traveling around Central America (buses are cheap, hostels are cheap, food is cheap) I started to look for a job. I ended up finding a volunteer English Teaching job in Costa Rica – yes, volunteer.

My view every day in the jungles of Costa Rica

I did however get to stay with a local family in exchange for teaching at the local school. I got 3 meals a day and had a great experience with them. I stayed with them for 7 months, taking weekend trips here and there and a weeklong trip to Panama for my birthday. I booked a flight home for $600.

Meanwhile I had gotten a job offer in Eastern Europe. I accepted the offer and was home for 2 months before leaving again – I again worked my ass off to save money. The job I had been offered paid for my flight to and from Europe and gave me a monthly stipend of about $170 (once again, this was a volunteer job) and a homestay with room and board.

My co-teacher, some of our students, and I in Georgia

I was in the Republic of Georgia for 6 months and traveled to Poland, Armenia, and Turkey and all over Georgia in that time. Two of my co-workers and I couch-surfed in Turkey together and a few of us stayed in hostels in Armenia. We ate cheap food, drank cheap wine, and took cheap transportation (amazing overnight train from Armenia to Georgia, anyone?)

It is possible to travel ‘alone’ as a female, you will make friends, you will meet travel-buddies, you will stay with strangers who become friends, and you will be fine. Don’t be reckless. If you’re nervous, meet up with your couch-surfing host ahead of time for a coffee and stay with only females. I didn’t hitch-hike personally but I know a lot of people who did and it’s a lot more common in some areas of the world than others. I found the buses to be cheap and safe. I never got sick from street food and I don’t have the most awesome stomach.

Fairy Chimneys in Cappadocia, Turkey

I spent a grand total of $12,500 over 18 months in 10 countries (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Georgia, Poland, Turkey, and Armenia). I didn’t travel hack (or even know what that meant), I didn’t rack up a ton of debt, I actually only had 1 credit card with a $1,200 limit that I only used if I had to pre-book anything (like a flight) and I didn’t come home ‘poor’.

In fact, I moved in with a friend when I came home in 2012, found a job within a few weeks, and worked two jobs for a couple months to save money for university, which I started 6 months after I got home. I moved into my own place that summer and here I am. Working full time, not in crippling debt, not living at my parents, and still making time to travel at least 3 weeks a year until I finish university.

Welcome to Part Three of my Belize Trip Report! I’ve noticed that there isn’t always a ton of cost breakdown or talk of logistics when people do travel posts so I’ve decided to do a few posts on our trip to Belize. We only had 9 days there so to fit in the most possible it took some pre-planning! These posts won’t be so much about the amazing time we had but about the logistics and cost of everything. Most of the amounts in this post are in Belize currency: $1 US = $2 Belize (BZ). Find Part ONE here and Part TWO here.

DAY SEVEN:

Monday

Whewww we were all a little hungover this day. Too much fun! We went for breakfast at Cafe y Amor – it was busy, but the food was good. I had a sloppy delicious fried egg sandwich with cheese, bacon, and other greasy stuff to ease the hangover. Also, coffee. This cost me 16 BZ. After sleeping the morning away, 3 of us decided to go snorkelling in the afternoon. We did the half day, 3-stop tour with Carlos from Hicaco Tours. It was a great trip – we went to Shark Ray Alley, Coral Gardens and “the Channel” and saw tons of sharks, rays, and eels (yikes)! We got fresh fruit on the boat. Cost was 70 BZ.

Petting a stingray! And then I underwater giggled and choked on water. Because maturity.

We ate dinner at this amazing italian place – Pasta Per Caso – handmade fresh pasta with only 2 items to choose from each night (changes depending on ingredients available for the day). The owner and his wife were awesome, and the pasta. Wow, so good. I had Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino (garlic, oil, and pepper flakes), while my boyfriend had Orecchiette with tomatoes and pancetta. Both were amazing. We also tried the garlic bread, wine, and the rum cake dessert. This is a tiny spot but if there’s no room the owner will tell you what time to come back – do it. So good. Dinner was around 30 BZ each.

Walked around once more, checked out a reggae duo at the pizza place (beers – 4 BZ) and spent the evening relaxing.

We had an awful breakfast at a place whose name escapes me right now – it was close to the Paradise place, kitty-corner to it really. The server was forgetful and kind of rude, the food was wrong and took FOREVER. It was cheap but we wouldn’t go back here, 10 BZ.

Since my boyfriend missed out on the snorkelling the day before, we decided to go snorkelling. Our friends went scuba-diving and liked it a lot. We went with Carlos and Francisco from Hicaco for a 4 hour trip with lunch. The spots we stopped were Shark Ray Alley, Hol Chan Marine, and Coral Gardens (a different part than yesterday’s tour). It cost 110 BZ and the lunch was pretty mediocre, but we saw a lot of turtles, sharks, fish, rays, etc. I would do the half day trip over this one. My bf got burnt because we forgot to use sunscreen. Whoops. Still a fun trip, and we were really glad we did it.

Nurse Shark and Green Turtle

Had delicious food (lobster nachos, sushi) at Caribbean Colors Art Cafe, as well as good coffee, for 20 BZ each.

Dinner at Habeneros was delightful. I had the Thai Snapper (44 BZ) – the peanut sauce was awesome. We all shared a couple pitchers of sangria too (20 BZ per).

Boo, last day here! We ate at Caribbean Colors again – I had the lobster scramble bagel (and stole some of my bfs breakfast nachos) and coffee. It was 16 BZ. The bagel was so big that I had half of it wrapped up and ate it on the boat later. Good portion sizes there for sure.

Last look at the island

We took the water taxi back to Belize City around 1:30 and a cab to the airport for $40 BZ total (10 BZ each and easy to catch one right outside the ferry terminal). We ate lunch at the airport – they didn’t take credit cards so we had to take out more cash. $20 BZ for lunch with one beer.

You could definitely spend a lot less than us if you stayed in hostels, didn’t splurge on nice meals, buy fewer souvenirs, don’t drink a lot, and didn’t take all the tours that we did. We expected to spend $1500 so we were pretty happy with this overall cost.

All in all it was a fantastic trip and we all had an excellent time. I was very happy that my friends and boyfriend all had a great time since none of them had been to Central America before and weren’t sure what to expect.

Welcome to Part TWO of my Belize Trip Report! This part is actually our quick trip over to Guatemala. I’ve noticed that there isn’t always a ton of cost breakdown or talk of logistics when people do travel posts so I’ve decided to do a few posts on our trip to Belize. We only had 9 days there so to fit in the most possible it took some pre-planning! These posts won’t be so much about the amazing time we had but about the logistics and cost of everything. Most of the amounts in this post are in Belize currency: $1 US = $2 Belize (BZ).

A lot of the time when people write about travel they mostly write about what happens while you are there, the amazing sites, people etc. There isn’t always a ton of cost breakdown or talk of logistics so I’ve decided to do a few posts on our trip to Belize. For longer trips I really like just going and seeing what happens and where you end up. Some trips require a lot more planning and this was one of them – we had 9 days to fit it all in!These posts won’t be so much about the amazing time we had but about the logistics and cost of everything – so that others can see how easy and inexpensive it can be. We were on a moderate budget and stayed in mid-range hotels, ate at nice restaurants every meal and didn’t limit our excursions so our costs are actually pretty high. You could do this trip for less than half of what we paid if you stayed in hostels, made your own meal once or twice a day, and limited the excursions.

Waterfront on Caye Caulker. Image Credit W. Auxillou

We booked our flights after finding a deal on yycdeals.com (a Calgary specific flight deal site) but you can keep your eyes open for deals year round. Our flights were $490 USD each, round trip, with layovers in Houston. Most of the amounts in this post are in Belize currency: $1 US = $2 Belize (BZ).

You guys. I went to the health food store yesterday and it was so overwhelming. I mean, I eat fairly healthy most of the time (although I tend to eat way too much bread for someone doing a low-carb diet). Since starting Nicole’s Sugar Detox, I’ve realized that bread is a comfort food for me and a LOT of the time I just need a glass of water while I try to find something healthier.

So when Laura posted this recipe for the “Life-Changing Bread” on our little detox Facebook group, I decided to give it a shot.

(Please ignore the strange Italian man’s head. I inherited him from my Grandma who passed away last month and I’m not really sure where to put him…)

This is likely the first of a few posts about the weekend. I have so many things to say, but I’m the actual busiest ever right now – I have three Annual General Meetings for my Councils in the next 2 weeks at work, and at school I have an exam and 3 papers due this week alone.

That being said, I hope I can recap Bloggers in Sin City (#BiSC) in all its gloriousness. I hope I can properly explain that this year was the actual best year I’ve been to #BiSC and that I felt love, so much love, the entire weekend.

This is a guest post I wrote for Simone over at SkinnyDip. To see the original, complete with Simone’s commentary click here. For Simone’s whole series of “Things I Would Tell My 20 Year Old Self” click here – prepare to spend the next 2 hours reading!

I remember when I was twenty and 30 seemed so far away. Now, my 29th birthday is rapidly approaching (less than a month away!) and I actually feel really good about it. I was so lost when I was twenty; just thinking about it makes me shake my head. I wish I could sit myself down and give myself a stern talking to, here’s what I needed to hear:

Like this:

This post is a Guest Post I wrote for Caryn @ A Day in The Life – she’s away volunteering in Africa and has a series on travel with guest bloggers for the whole month – check it out here!

When I was volunteering in the Republic of Georgia, I stayed with a host family in a tiny village three hours away from the big city. In fact, the closest next “town” was over an hour away and lays right smack on the Azerbaijan/Georgian border.

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I woke up early on my second day in Mexico City. If you’ve traveled alone, maybe you remember the first day you woke up in a strange place by yourself – it’s a weird feeling. My plan for the day involved the Turibus (a hop-on, hop-off tour around the city for $7 kinda thing) and Chilaquiles (corn tortillas with green sauce and scrambled eggs – so good).

After breakfast, I hopped on the Turibus and put on the requisite headphones to listen to the tour. A few stops in, two young guys got on the bus and I noticed that they were speaking English. As an extrovert, I was already feeling a bit lonely and lost so when they got off at one of the tourist stops, I shamelessly followed them off the bus. I wandered around looking at the fountain until one of the guys asked me to take their picture, and offered to take mine. Continue reading →

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The day I left for Mexico was a nerve-wracking day. I had already been away from home for almost 2 months – visiting my dad in Vegas. I had packed my backpack, plus a suitcase and a carry-on. The suitcase was staying behind with my dad; he was planning on visiting me once I got a little more settled.

I don’t remember what time of day I left, I just remember sitting in the airport, watching the clock, checking and double checking that I had my passport, money, cards, the name of the hotel and my rough plans written in my horribly illegible writing – really, it’s bad enough that I should seriously consider being a doctor.Continue reading →